Architecture Design Fundamentals I ⎯ "Nano-Machines"

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This studio aims to develop and further our understanding of architecture through the lens of nano-scale machines, technologies and phenomena. The Nano-Machine will become an apparatus, a device, a system and an architecture for understanding inputs, processes and outputs that can lead to the creation of space. Three primary engines of drawing, making and spatial investigations will be employed to elaborate on that theme. Different connotations of the “machine” such as an analogy, a system of working, and a device for decision making literally and conceptually throughout each project will be explored. This course is specifically designed to play off of studentʼs non-architectural undergraduate classes by introducing a domain of investigation through which a dialogue can be created to span multiple backgrounds and applications. This studio will investigate the notion of self-assembly/self-replication/self-repair/selfreconfiguration and other such phenomena present at the nano-scale and explore contemporary spatial design possibilities through new developments in nano-robotics, DNA origami, Synthetic Biology, medical devices etc. We will investigate the Nano-Machine with three projects: 1. Critically investigating the act of drawing by developing processes and templates that will allow students to reveal the internal logic of the subjects they study – i.e. “the drawing machine”. 2. Investigating the drawings as devices capable of shaping 3-dimensional physical objects and systems. The students will cast a series of constructs employing additive, subtractive and combinatorial operations – i.e. “the making machine”. 3. Creating space by examining notions of the solid and the void, inside, outside, scale, context– i.e. “ the architecture machine”.
Preference to Course 4 majors and minors.